Friends
by Ashr02
Summary: Lovino has some bully issues at school. Antonio is constantly trying to get him to make friends. However, Antonio doesn't take it too well after discovering about his bullying problem, and sets out to try and help him.
1. Chapter 1

Antonio was carrying Lovino on his back, Lovino held on to his father, who was busy talking about how amazing he was at the soccer game. They walked to the car-which was parked so unfortunately far from the soccer field-in Madrid's twilight hours.

"You really were amazing Lovi! I told you you were talented! I've never seen anyone move that quickly!" Antonio said, never losing his chipper tone even for a minute. Lovino just remained quiet, listening more to the Spaniard's tangent. He sunk his head into his Antonio's shoulder.

"You just caught a bad break with that fall, but still, you were still amazing-" Antonio was interrupted as soon as Lovino's brain managed to comprehend that statement.

"S-Shut it, you know I was awful" He hesitantly said. He may have a lot goals but he fell and hurt his ankle right at the very end of the game. He turned his gaze at it, his ankle was covered with a big plaster coloured with the flag of Italy. What made matters worse is that his brother scored the winning goal, and went with all the team for ice-cream, completely ignoring him..

"No! Don't say that! You really were great!" Antonio said, trying to cheer up the mood. Lovino may be rather…loud, but Antonio-unlike everybody else-understood that he was quite sensitive and self-conscious.

The problem is that the children didn't invite Lovino, so when Antonio suggested to Lovino that he go talk to them, he rejected the suggestion with distain. They obviously don't want him around them, they just want his precious twin instead, if they don't want to be around him why should he bother himself with them?

Antonio then finally reacher the car and placed Lovino on the front seat. To be fair, Lovino could walk OK, the injury wasn't that bad, but he knew that Lovino was in no mood to walk that long distance. Why did Antonio park so far away?

"Papa, can you…" Lovino trailed off, sounding much quieter than usual.

"What is it Lovi?" Antonio said, picking up on his tone.

"Nothing." Lovino quickly replied, trying to avoid looking at the Spaniard, who was acting chipper and happy. Why does he get to be so happy and loveable whilst he's glum and unlikeable to everyone? That jerk Antonio always surprises him with his stupid happy-go-lucky tone.

"Come on, tell me" Antonio begged as he got into the car. He sounded like such a child when he wanted to know something.

"Do you think we can get some ice-cream on the way?" Lovino quietly asked. Which was followed by a quick response form his Spanish father.

"Of course Lovi! Let me guess, Lemon right?" Antonio asked excitedly, it was Lovino's favourite flavour. Lovino simply nodded lightly and looked out the window.

"You know, Lovi, maybe you should extend yourself a bit, open up-" Antonio's merry train of words stopped, he noticed Lovino looking outside the car window. Lovino never found it easy to make friends or be..well, social. Antonio always tried to help him, but Lovino was sort of…

"_Idiota_! Look at where you're going, jerk-face!" Lovino exclaimed, his father was about to crash the car, he then heard some Spanish swears from the other driver.

"S-Sorry" Antonio said, chuckling a bit. Lovino was 10. How could he have such a wide vocabulary of insults? He would blame television but the only show Lovino watches routinely was My Little Pony. One of Lovino's deep secrets that he'd kill to keep in the bag.

"Seriously! One day you're going to kill us both with that crazy taxi driving of yours!" Lovino yelled. Antonio tried to hide his chuckles over how high Lovino's voice was. It was pretty hilarious how he was getting lectured by a 10-year old.

To be fair though, it wasn't his fault. His driving was perfectly fine before he moved to Italy, even though he's back in Spain he still has fears of an Italian popping out of nowhere. Which reminded him, he should make sure that Lovino and Feliciano get proper driving lessons when they are old enough, Italian driving is the only part of the twins' heritage that Antonio would rather they not take part in.

"We're here Lovi, come on, let's go get some ice-cream." Lovino got out of the car and grabbed Antonio's hand, the two went into the Greek ice-shop. Lovino loved that place, it had the best ice-cream ever, but, there was a pretty big problem with the cashier..

"Oh seriously?"

"Yeah"

"Oh seriously?"

Exactly. Whenever Antonio comes tot his shop he ends up chatting with the cashier-who happened to own the store-for hours, or at least, until Lovino has to bring him back to reality.

"Papa" Lovino said. Which caused the Spaniard to remember the ice-cream. He gets way too carried away with small talk.

"Ah, right" Antonio quickly got the ice-cream and dragged Lovino to the car.

"So, Lovi, wanna go watch that new Iron Man movie tomorrow since you have the day off?" Antonio suggested. He knew that Lovino was quite a big fan of Marvel movies, maybe this was a good chance to get him to go out a bit.

"Yeah, I guess" Lovino said. Antonio knew that even though he sounded monotone, he was screaming that insane fanboy scream on the inside, Iron Man was his all-time favourite after all.

Antonio'll work on Lovino, Feliciano is a bit too happy to notice his brother's problems, Lovi spends most of his time with Antonio after all, he needs a good friend.

"Why're you staring at me like that? _Idiota_" Lovino said, getting Antonio's attention. "Hurry up and open the door!" Lovino yelled again. He stared at Antonio until he complied with his demands.

"So, what do you want for dinner?" Antonio asked merrily as Lovi jumped on the couch.

"Well duh, Pasta" Antonio chuckled a bit, he would've usually passed this off, but they've had two different types of pasta in the span of two days. Maybe it was time for a little change.

"Well Lovi, we made Pasta yesterday, and the day before that, so how about we try something different? I was thinking Ham and Sausage!" Antonio said. Lovino just sighed but nodded. Antonio's Ham and Sausage was quite good, but nevertheless, he was still just a little disappointed about the pasta.

"Oh boy! Lovi, they have The Great Gatsby running, I've been wanting to see that movie since I heard about it, how about you invite some of your classmates to watch with you? Feliciano can stay with Francis since he doesn't like Marvel much." Antonio happily suggested, but it didn't go as well as expected.

"No! This was supposed to be something we both watch together" Lovino put extra emphasis on together, then continued. "Plus either way, who'd wanna go with me" He said in a much quieter voice, crossing his arms.

"Come on Lovi! I'm sure if you tried to ask anyone they'd definitely agree!" Antonio said. "I'll help you!" He continued. He figured if he actually really focused on it he can help couch Lovino on how to make friends with practically anyone, though..this won't be easy.

"No!"

Antonio raised a brow, Lovino was never this..eager to avoid trying to make friends.

"Nobody ever wants to do anything with me, I'll just spend all my time with you, you're the only one who wants to play with me anyways."

Antonio's mouth was hanging open. Where the hell did all this come from? Lovino may sometimes get sad, but he never exactly said anything like this. Maybe his problem is bigger than he thought..


	2. Chapter 2

Lovino looked around the hallway and sighed. He recess, he'd much rather have stayed in class or at the library, in fact, he should've stayed away from the kids, like he normally does. But the teachers had some meeting and everyone was down at recess for one class. He walked and looked nervously at everyone he passed by, he always had this feeling that everyone was staring at him, judging him. So whenever he passed anyone, he immediately checked his shirt and hair. As if there's something wrong about him. He went to the upper floor-which was virtually deserted because the older kids finished their exams-to try and get some peace, until..

"So Lovino, can you talk or are you still deaf?" Alfred said. Lovino clenched his fists. It was them. He tried to ignore them, and just kept walking, but they just persisted..

"Go away" Lovino said quietly. Alfred and Gilbert always showed up to make his life miserable, that's why he preferred staying in class, or at the library, two places where Alfred and Gilbert would never go to willingly.

"You can talk?! That's a surprise! So you're not deaf" Gilbert said. Which earned him quite a scowl from the Italian. Lovino had had it, he'd been having a rough day as it is, the last thing he needs is those two picking on him, why can't they just leave him alone?

"I said go away!" Lovino re-iterated, this time much louder, pushing them violently. Gilbert and Alfred looked at each other seriously, and moved closer to the Italian. Lovino stood there, paralysed, he wanted to move, hell, he wanted to run, he mentally yelled at himself to. Damn it! Not again..

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Antonio was trying to finish the chicken for the pizza he was making. If there was one thing Lovi and Feli loved almost as much as they loved Pasta, it was his chicken pizza. Now all that's left is the tomato sauce and what else..

Antonio then heard his cell-phone ring. He was surprised to hear Feliciano and Lovino's principle on the other end.

"Hello? Mr. Carriedo?"

"Yes?" Antonio asked, whatever one of them did must've been bad, the principle sounded rather odd, almost as if he's trying to avoid talking to him.

"Can you please come to school? It's about Lovino, I'm afraid this isn't the sort of thing that can be explained over-phone" Antonio instinctively grabbed clothes and jumped in the car. Antonio sometimes-well, most of the times-cooked or cleaned or worked completely naked when no one was around.

Antonio gasped. What the hell happened to his face? He saw him sitting there with a couple bruises, tons of plasters and dried blood on his lip. Lovino seemed so pathetic, he refused to look at Antonio.

"_Cristo.._What happened?" Antonio glumly asked as he inspected Lovino's injuries. He turned Lovi's head and checked for bumps. God..

"He won't tell us. He came to class like this" The principle answered. "We'll look into this further tomorrow, but until then, I think it'd be a good idea to take him home." He continued. Antonio nodded, he'd get every bit of information when he gets him home.

"Yeah, I think you're right" Antonio said, he grabbed Lovino and said goodbye to the principle, who told him that Feliciano will bring Lovino's backpack with him.

"Lovi, what happened?" Antonio asked as he drove-carefully this time-Lovino crossed his arms and looked away.

Antonio remained quiet for the rest of the ride back. When they arrived Antonio quickly rushed with the alcohol rub and the plasters. He knew that Lovino would fuss eternally like every time he would try and do this when he got hurt during soccer practice.

"Ouch! W-Watch it!" Lovino exclaimed angrily, he was quite feisty when someone was trying to take care of his injuries, or at least, that's how he was when Antonio tried to help..

"Lovi, please, tell me who did this." Antonio pleaded. He was trying to act calm, he really was, but inside he was burning up. Who the hell would do something like this?! He just had to find out.

Lovino looked away, and scowled. Antonio sighed when he saw this.

"You know, there's no honour in defending bullies" Antonio said, trying to place the plaster over his cheek. "Lovi, Tell me" Antonio used his most serious tone, he never sounded like that before, so it freaked Lovino out a bit.

"Just some kids from class.." Lovino finally said. He felt as if he's surrendering his dignity. Usually when he gets beat up he just hides his face, so the hits would mostly go towards his chest and legs which he would cover up. When Antonio and Feliciano weren't looking he'd sneak some rubbing alcohol from the medicine cabinet and try and take care of his injuries. Antonio taught him how to. So he'd never really complained about any bullying problems, in fact, he tried to prevent anyone from finding out. He was afraid he'd get picked on even more. Plus, he had trouble talking to people, and didn't exactly know how to approach the subject.

"Lovino, please. I need to know" This was the first time Antonio used Lovino's full name. Lovino immediately felt a wave of shame overcome him. He didn't want to talk about it anymore, hell, he didn't want to talk about it in the first place. Why can't everyone just leave him alone?

"Why don't you go to your room? I'll finish dinner" Antonio sighed. Lovino complied with his suggestion and left immediately. Antonio angrily went over to the kitchen and began cutting the cucumber. He eventually decided to just stir the sauce after he almost sliced his finger for the fifth time. Damn, just. Damn. Lovino may not be easy to befriend but still..Just how the hell could this happen? Why would anyone do such a thing? Is it possible that he's getting picked on at school? Antonio asked him everyday about school, he never once gave him the impression that someone was picking on him, Antonio only picked up on the feign sense of boredom.

"Papa! I'm home! Where's Lovi?" Feliciano said, waltzing happily, he had two backpacks with him. How could Antonio have not heard him enter? Oh right, he should tell Feliciano shouldn't he?

"Listen Feli, can I talk to you a bit?" Antonio said, sounding slightly less happy than usual. He tried as hard as he could to feign the feeling of stability, but he did a less than excellent job. Feliciano picked up on it.

"Yes?" He said in his don't-punish-me-I-surrender voice. Antonio understood that he thought he was getting in trouble.

"It's about Lovi, does he seem to have any problems at school? Like are the kids in class giving him a hard time?" Antonio asked putting his arms on the counter. He didn't plan for it to sound that way, but that last sentence came out a bit too innocent.

"I guess everything's fine" Feliciano quickly said and ran up to his room. Antonio stopped him with the same speed.

"You sure?" He asked, giving Feliciano that little 'I know what you did' glare. He knew that Lovino was too stubborn to give into him, Feliciano however..

"Yeah! Pretty sure!" Feliciano exclaimed, trying to sound confident. Unfortunately, he's as transparent as water.

Antonio opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Lovino.

"Feli, come on, let's play" He quickly said, relieving his brother of the interrogation. Felicano seemed to flinch at the sight of Lovino's face, but nervously nodded and ran with him.

Perfect, just perfect. He'd have to catch Feliciano alone next time. No, better yet, he knew the perfect solution. Or at least, the one that involved the least amount of ER trips.

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Ok! So first off, I'd like to apologise for my lack of vocabulary, I'm working on that problem. English isn't my first language. Second, I'd like to apologise for the short chapters, I have exams coming up and have been taking quite a lot of study breaks lately,I sort of lose my ideas when I don't write continuously. Last, but not least, I'd like to apologise for the lack of plot, yes I know. This is just an introduction, in retrospect, I should've wrote this with the first chapter shouldn't I? Either way, I'll try to make it possible to read without having to claw your eyes out.

One thing I'd like to ask, is the way I cut from one scene to another obnoxious? I don't know, I just feel as if I need to work on it more, or at the very least stick to one scene for more than just a couple of freaking lines. I'll on these problems, or at least, I'll try.

Also, another thing that bothers me is the lack of character. I'll work on that as well. Boy, I have QUITE a lot of things to work on. Either way, tell me what you think and what you suggest, I'm sort of a first-time writer, so don't get your hopes up lol.

So anyways, thanks for reading! I'd appreciate any advice you may have.


	3. Chapter 3

Lovino was getting bored. He spent the first few classes at the principles office discussing what happened. He thankfully didn't squeal, though he was a bit worried about Antonio somehow finding out through his idiot brother. He'd been acting clingy. Well, more than usual. The bastard was too persistent.

"Look!" One of the kids pointed, Lovino realised that they were apparently pointing at a fight happening outside. Some of the more..athletic kids jumped at it and went over to watch, until the teacher started yelling.

Barbarians. That was the one way to describe them. Ok, he wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed if here were to be considered a tool in the first place, but nevertheless, he-at least-didn't go around harassing other people. Even if he did have the power to do so, he wouldn't sink that low as to break personal space barriers.

He looked around the class and began recapping everyone, giving them his yearly judgement of how bad his opinion of them became. First there was his brother, a little slow but the only decent person in his class who he actually enjoyed to be around, though he never really payed much attention to Lovino. Then there was Gilbert, Alfred and that creepy Russian exchange student that always punches him for no good reason. The rest of the class just called him names-with the exception of Alfred's brother-so he usually managed to ignore them quite well. It was that one group that he hated. Those three's sole reason for existence seemed to be just to bully him. Yes, it maybe a rather big leap to claim that he's their reason for living, but why would it matter? They don't seem to do anything else. Alfred was an idiot who never listened to anyone, Gilbert's only talent seemed to be football, and Ivan…Ugh, he'd rather not go there.

"Lovino, focus" The teacher warned. In a month or two the semester will end and Lovino still didn't bother to learn the name of his English teacher. In retrospect, he tried to avoid English as much as he could. Spanish, he enjoyed, Italian was fun, Science he could tolerate, but English was sort of like a dark spot within his brain. Plus it didn't help that the teacher was Alfred's father who tended to regularly ignore him with the exception of the frequent humiliating warnings he always issued.

"Sorry" Lovino said quietly. There were a few murmurs and muffled laughter between the students which quickly died down. Lovino lowered his head and hugged his backpack tighter. He always hated speaking to people. Especially if it was in class. He felt as if everyone's watching and laughing at him, which they probably were.

"Hey, Lovi, I think Papa's hiding over there" Feliciano warned, looking as clueless as ever. Lovino just rolled his eyes at that ridiculous stateme- Oh lord.

Damn it! What the hell is that bastard doing here? Can't he just leave him alone? Just this once, can't that idiot leave him be? It's not his fault he got hit in the face for a change, why does he have to suffer? That idiot will probably try to get what he can out of Feliciano, which he will, he'll tell the principle, who will punish Alfred, Gilbert and Ivan, who in turn will take their anger out on him. Which will ultimately end with him in the hospital. In all honesty, Alfred and Gilbert's beatings were easy to cope with, he'd just run as quickly as possible back home, grab the plaster and rubbing alcohol when Antonio wasn't looking and lock himself in his room-with Feliciano unfortunately-and that's basically it, but at least Alfred and Gilbert held back, what he was really afraid of was Ivan, he always scared Lovino. Who feared that one day he'd end up seriously injured because of him. Creepy Russian bastard.

"Lovino! I said focus! It's bad enough you skipped every single class in the past week! You're lucky I haven't reported it to your father yet! I swear if I see you dozing off one more time I'll tell the principle!" Lovino sighed and tried to block out the feign sound of laughter which the English teacher happily ignored.

He hated him. Lovino hated him with all his might. He refused to pay attention in his classes and avoided them as vigilantly as possible. Whatever his name was, he was completely sure that he was out to get him. Either that or he's insane. One or the other.

RING RING RING

Lovino's thoughts were interrupted by the school-bell. He quickly ran with Feliciano to the Library. He thought it was sort of ironic, he wasn't exactly the intelligent type, but he sured loved to read. Sometimes when he wasn't in the mood he'd just talk with Feliciano there. Feli would occasionally stay with him instead of playing with his friends. Which he thought was a nice thing, though, he could never shake the feeling of envy whenever he was around his brother. But Feliciano was one of the few people decent towards him. So he tried to muffle the voice telling him to crack and go on a murdering spree, just like any normal kid would.

"Does that idiot really think we can't see him there?" Lovino said. It's embarrassing enough that he had to go to the principle's, the last thing he needs is his father hiding like a pedophile, he's surprised that nobody called the cops on him yet.

"I dunno, it's a pretty good hiding place" Felciiano said.

"Good for a 3-year old. Look, he's not even trying!" Lovino stated. Then his father hit the vase near the door, which resulted in a stern warning from the Librarian. Whenever Antonio tried to do anything he alway somehow ended making it seem like a comedy show for Feliciano and Lovino. Lovino could never tell if he was actually just THAT clumsy, because he always seems to get the job done.

"_Cazzo_!"

It seems Antonio managed to catch Lovino's Italian swear slip by. As evident by him looking directly at Lovino, not caring if he saw him. Lovino could usually swear openly in front of Antonio in Italian. Antonio barely understood a word of the language after all, and would just think he's saying something nice. However, sometimes there'd be a striking similarity between the Italian swear and the Spanish version, so he would catch him and give him a giant lecture about it. If there was one thing Antonio couldn't tolerate, it was swearing.

"Oh hey Lovi!" The Spaniard said, completely changing his way of approaching the situation. Lovino sighed. Does that idiot really think that they didn't notice him? He was trying to act like a ninja, bumped into everyone on the way following them and broke a vase. Unless they were blind and deaf they didn't have trouble noticing him.

"Hey Papa" Lovino said. It was difficult to explain, the Spaniard embarrassed him, always was happy-go-lucky and rarely ever was serious, yet he sincerely enjoyed his company. If anything, the only person Lovino actually liked was Antonio, though he could never help feeling that Antonio's presence would hinder any opportunity to actually make any new friends, even if he had given up on the idea ages ago.

"Oh hey there Feli!" Antonio said, noticing Feliciano tugged in the corner, Feli never enjoyed reading much, he always had a friend to goof off with, so he usually just spent his time in that spot whenever he entered the library. "I was just buying some groceries for dinner and thought I'd wait for you, you get out in like 10 minutes right?" Antonio asked, being chipper as always. Lovino rolled his eyes and nodded slightly, making sure that Antonio understood how distain. Seriously, for someone who never lies, at all, he could come up with some pretty good ones on the spot.

Though to be fair, Lovino was glad he'd get out of school this early. Usually after classes are over he'd have to wait about an hour for his father to come pick them up. During which time he has to unfortunately run into Alfred and Gilbert who tended to spend their time throwing paper at him in the back of the library until he left, which they would proceed to push him around. So his father being there wasn't a total loss.

"So, how're you feeling now Lovi? Better?" Antonio asked, which caused Lovino to shoot him a glare. He REALLY just had to bring it up again didn't he? Jesus old man, let it go, it's not that uncommon, everybody gets bullied on.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Since you didn't cook how about we go out to that Italian place?" Lovino suggested. As usual, his mind being focused on food.

"How did you know I didn't cook?" Antonio asked, being genuinely curious.

"You were busy following us all day you probably didn't even go shopping" Lovino said with distain, raising his voice at every syllable.

"Oh right, you noticed?"

"Of course we noticed! _Idiota! _You knocked a vase over and you got yelled at by everybody in the library!" Lovino said, glaring angrily at his father.

"Well Lovino, I'm just worried, getting beat up-"

Lovino immediately interrupted him.

"Will you stop mentioning that?! Everybody gets beat up! Everybody gets picked on, _everybody_ does! Even your precious Feli gets called a scatterbrain by everyone!" Their focus immediately shifted to Feliciano who just lowered his head as to avoid any stares. "Can't you just stop trying to make my problems bigger than they are? I'm happy like this! I don't need you barging into the school acting like a creep making everybody think my father's insane! Do you have any idea how much everyone makes fun of what you do?!" Lovino yelled. His mind immediately flashed to the time Antonio gave the entire vegetarian kids in the school his famous beef and chicken salad without telling them, or when he started flirting with the French teacher thinking he was a girl. Or when he went with Lovino to a cooking class and started lecturing the teacher about using the wrong spices.

There was a strange surreal sense of silence in the car. It's been minutes and all they did was stare at each other. Lovino was sweating, not being able to keep up his act for much longer. Feliciano was staring at the two. Everything felt awkward and tense before Antonio spoke up.

"So what you're saying is that I wasn't sneaky?"

"Hahaha" The tense atmosphere was immediately replaced by laughter. Antonio then began thinking to himself, trying to reconcile the situation and began driving.

'_Dodged a bullet there Antonio! Ok, obviously you need to dance delicately around the subject. Avoid Lovino's suspicion, and in the meantime, try and figure out where the hospital is located because I'm sure that there's still a broken shard of that vase in your pancreas.'_

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_Ok, sorry for not updating for so long. I just finished exams. Arabic went unbelievably well (Really, this is the first time I did better than anyone else) So I don't have to go to summer-school for another year *yay* I'm getting so many ideas for this story! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and any advice or criticism would be greatly appreciated. _


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